An alligator in Arizona
Back in the 1980’s, I lived near the Huachuca mountains, which are in Cochise county, southern Arizona, on the border with Mexico. This is mainly open cattle grazing land, miles of grass, small oak trees, and the occasional small stream. Beautiful country. I was a witness to this event.
For a few years, locals were reporting dogs disappearing near a small creek which had a deep hole in it which did not dry out in the summer. The children (and drunk cowboys) would use it as a swimming hole. The kids started telling their parents about a monster which lived in the hole. The parents laughed it off – until a cowboy managed to get a blurry photograph of the monster. It was published in the local paper. There really was a monster! The county sheriff phoned the Phoenix zoo to come out and take a look. The zoo rep identified it as an alligator. This identification was also published in the local paper. That is when the fun started.
First, the children were banned from swimming in the hole. The cowboys competed with each other to photograph it again (successful), bait it and catch in traps (unsuccessful), shoot and kill it (unsuccessful), and lasso it and drag it out (ultimately successful). This took some weeks, and the place was unsafe from all the cowboys competing with each other to catch the monster. Everyone was tremendously excited.
The Phoenix zoo agreed to take the alligator and ran a state-wide contest for the children to name it. The winning name was either Cochise or Geronimo, both Apaches from the area who waged war on the whites. I’m afraid I don’t remember which it was.
In the US, one could buy small 12 inch alligators as pets. My husband had one when he was a boy. The zoo rep conjectured that a pet alligator had either been released or had escaped from some local household many years ago, and that the family had probably thought it had died in such dry terrain. The alligator had made its way to the only standing water for miles, and had thrived there. As it got bigger, it graduated from eating fish and birds to dogs and rabbits. It was seven feet long when it finally was caught. This was big enough to really hurt a child, if not kill him. After the alligator was in the alligator habitat at the zoo, I went to see it. It was amazing to think of this animal living for years or decades in such dry country. It certainly seemed to have a satisfied smile.
